snowynight

“Aw!” Sulu groaned, shaking off an alien at his arm. “Get off me!”

Pulsating headache hit Jim as these uninvited guests caused havoc on the bridge. Not again, he thought. Trelane, Charles... Why do so many aliens want to mess with the Enterprise?

"You have intruded the Starfleet Enterprise. State your intention," Jim said, staring at the one ahead.

The alien stomped its feet and ignored Jim’s question.

Today had started so well, Jim sighed inside. It was peaceful and calm, until the alien appeared on the bridge from nowhere and multiplied in number. One of them blocked his way, its small and pointy eyes focused entirely on him, but the other stout aliens ignored him and continued to wave their six long waxy arms. More and more aliens roamed the bridge. One pounced on Chekov to catch him with its arms, causing him to scream and jump. Another rushed to the science station, only to be subdued by Spock’s neck pinch. Several of them crowded around Jim’s chair, stomping the ground with their feet.

Meanwhile, the bridge floor vibrated, as if experiencing a minor earthquake.

Have they damaged the ship? "Red alert. Security to the bridge," Jim ordered, pushing the aliens away when they grabbed his legs. “Mr. Spock, status."

Spock flung an alien to his side as he reported with a slight frown. “No detected damage. I am analyzing the unusual energy signature the aliens emit, but I have not been able to cross-referencing with our ship's database,"

Is the vibration the alien's way of talking? “The ship’s vibrating. Have you found the cause?”

Uhura looked up from her panel. “Captain, I find that the aliens are transmitting seismic signals. I’m calibrating the universal communicator to translate them.”

"Keep me informed of your progress,” Jim said, suppressing a curse as an alien using his distraction to claw his leg. “Find out how they get here and why.”

“Yes, Captain.”

The aliens tore Jim’s shirt halfway when Uhura rigged up a device to convert audio signal to seismic signal. It took some trial and error, but finally the aliens agreed to leave when Jim returned them to their home planet. He sighed in relief when the last alien was transmitted off the ship.

“Continue our course, Warp four, Mr. Sulu,” Jim said, calling up his replacement so that he could change his uniform. It was the fifth time in a month his uniform was irreversibly damaged.

Sighing, Jim went to the gym afterwards to burn off some of his remaining frustration. With luck, he could have peace until his next shift.

“I won the bet. They got rid of your toy in 3.567 quantum as predicted.” Chadav astrally projected her sense of triumph, which exploded into colourful lightning and distorted the surrounding space. “Pay up.”

Chechook’s frustration fumed, throwing the tenth sub-dimension they betted on at Chadav, who devoured it and shivered at the feel of the energy within.

“Another bet?” Chadav asked.

Chechook phased out of their shared space without a word, but Chadav knew she would return for another bet. She could never stayed away for long.

Thanks the universe for bring this tiny ship the bipedal beings called the Enterprise for their amusement. The ship would disappear soon, like other things in the universe, but Chadav knew that it didn’t matter, because as long as Chechook was around to make a bet with, life would be tolerable.